25 Arrested On 1st Day of FERC Protests

In the face of ongoing threats to our health, communities, democracy, property values, environment and climate:

1. We demand that FERC withdraw its permit for the dangerous fracked-gas export facility at Cove Point, as well as recent gas expansion permits at Myersville, Minisink and Seneca Lake. In addition, we demand a stop to the permitting of all fracked-gas export facilities and other fracked-gas infrastructure.

2. We demand that all future FERC permits:

-consider as the top priority the rights of human beings and all life on Earth;

-fully assess the cumulative harm from infrastructure projects on public health, local economies and the climate. FERC must consider the damage from fracking--the extreme extraction process that generates the gas for these projects--and from climate change. FERC must reject industry's practice of disguising major projects by dividing them into separate, ostensibly unrelated ones.

-adhere to the precautionary principle: in the face of uncertainty and the absence of scientific consensus, the benefit of the doubt will go to public health and the environment. The burden of proof that a project is safe falls with those proposing the project; communities will not need to prove that a project is harmful.

3. We demand that FERC commissioners meet with communities affected by approved and proposed fossil fuel infrastructure, including the Cove Point export facility, Myersville and Minisink compressor stations, and Seneca Lake gas storage project. This is a key step in changing FERC from an agency that protects only the interests of the fossil fuel industry to one that protects the public interest.

4. We demand a Congressional investigation into FERC's rubberstamping of industry proposals.